Horrible Owner with Fake “Culture” and Pay Structure - Assistant Manager Atlantic Wireless Employee Review

The owner, Brandon Tate, is the worst person I have ever come in contact with (in and out of the office). I got hired with this company and was one of their top performers within my first few months with the company. I was promoted to Manager at a store because of this. After the newness of the job wore off, it became clear Brandon was only interested in the “hot new thing”. Tenured loyal employees are constantly threatened with losing their job after having one slow month. I went from out performing whole stores, to being threatened with my job within a one month span. The owner, Brandon , has over ten stores and rules every associate in his company in a way that I have never seen, before or after. He started AWC in the 90s and has not been a store associate since then. He would show up in our stores and the employees would know their day was going to be a nightmare. He would push employees to use sales techniques from the 90s to sell modern phones and accessories. Eventually, he also had store associates outright lie to customers to sell them things they did not need. We were told to sell “Free” tablets that actually cost 7-10 dollars a month for two years. Customers who switched phone carriers were sometimes given gift cards to switch carriers. This could be used to pay off their bills from the carrier they switched from. Instead, Brandon instructed us not to tell customers about the card. We were instructed to sell “bundles” of junk accessories and items to customers and then use the card to pay for the items. Junk accessories were how OWNERSHIP made their money, not the employees. We would sell a phone, get paid the tiny commission for the phone and then the next month, the persons bill would bounce (since they could not use the cards on their bill). We then would have to get “charged back”, meaning money from the next month was literally taken out of our checks to cover the customer not paying their bill. The customer in these situations never knew they had a 300-500$ card they could have used. Ownership never got “charged back” the accessory money though, thus filling their pockets at the expense of their employees. This was/is not sales. This was outright CRIMINAL fraud. I took this job because I needed a job and had small children at home. I was tricked by a commission structure that was deliberately vague and deceitful. Employees called it “Wizard Math”. Nobody could give you an answer on how you got paid, and that was the point. Working for this company was one of the darkest times of my life. I ended up getting out but I feel terrible to this day for the employees still stuck inside the company. They are pawns for the worst human that I have ever met. They are pawns to line his pockets. I would only accept a job here if there is no other option. Their turnover rate is over 100% a year and management is the same. Ownership is the constant and I can not put into words how bad the ownership is. If you do get hired here, I would slowly look for other jobs and just use it while you can as a paycheck. Your time starts ticking as soon as you walk in the door. Everyone’s does. Stay away if you can!